The Contemporary Museum

This past Saturday I went to the Contemporary Museum in Makiki for the first time. I had been wanting to go for a while and finally made it. There was a photography exhibition by the artist Richard Misrach called On the Beach. The pictures were so beautiful and took up entire walls. 

One of Richard Misrach's photos from the museum website.

Excerpted from the website: 

"For almost 40 years Richard Misrach has been producing beautiful photographs of the land, focusing on man's relationship with, and often-disastrous impact on, his environment. Recently he has turned his camera to water, photographing beaches, the ocean, sunbathers, and swimmers from a viewpoint high above. Digital technology has made possible dramatically scaled prints, some as large as 6 by 10 feet. The photographs offer subtle detail yielded by Misrach's use of a view camera that produces 8 by 10-inch negatives. With no horizon line, the vast expanses of sand and water offer a strangely disorienting view. From their vertiginous perch, the images evoke awe, astonishment, as well as a sense of unease intended by the artist.
As Misrach explains, "The photographs that appear in On the Beach were made between January 2002 and November 2005. My thinking was influenced by the events of 9/11, as well as by the 1950s Cold War novel and film, On the Beach. I was drawn to the fragility and grace of the human figure in the landscape. For me, the work is both a celebration of our survival and an elegy. Paradise has become an uneasy dwelling place; the sublime sea frames our vulnerability, the precarious nature of life itself." "

I was wearing a pink dress and thought I matched these flowers!

I love this tree.

A reflection pond.

A path in the garden I walked around in.

I could sit under this tree all day.

I would highly recommend going to the museum. It is very small but quaint and beautiful grounds. Next time I want to eat at the cafe and take my nephew to the kids program there. It was a nice way to spend my Saturday.